Dead Space is a survival horror action game that was released on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC last year, and was something of an instant hit. As a game it borrowed from many elements of ideas like that of Resident Evil, Metroid Prime, and Alien to bring forward something that was positively frightening, yet really fun and worthwhile to play. Players took on the role of Isaac Clarke, who, while maneuvering outer space, responds to a potential distress call. It turns out that the ship that sent the signal is now littered with mutants who attack you at every corner, and it’s here that the game’s great combat mechanics manifest themselves, in the form of intense fights and a system that allows for strategic dismemberment of the parts of enemies. It’s no surprise that the announcement of Dead Space: Extraction for Wii was met with much excitement and anticipation.
There is something you should know about Extraction, however. As a game, it’s not entirely like it’s Xbox 360, PS3 and PC counterpart. In fact, strictly speaking, it’s not even a survival-horror: it’s an arcade-style on-rails shooter. That means that that both the camera and movement is controlled by the game itself, and it’s the player’s job to shoot the enemies onscreen. Now, granted, this isn’t exactly what fans expected, but glimpses of the game so far have shown the game to be promising in the standards of the kind of shooter it happens to be.
According to the developers, Extraction implements every mechanic the original was known for, not just strategic dismemberment but also stasis, telekinesis, and zero gravity. Simply aim and press the Stasis button to use that feature, and dismemberment too is self-explanatory: fire at different limbs to cause enemies to trip, stumble, etc.
Also, Extraction will feature an entirely new weapon called the Arc Welder, which fires bolts of electricity that arc between enemies and do extensive damage depending on how many monsters are in sight. There are other weapons exclusive to the game, but their names and abilities have not currently been disclosed to fans.
I know many gamers are probably very cautious at this point. On the one hand, it could be a quality game that the creators have decided should be an on-rails game for the sake of sheer variety. On the other hand, perhaps they are going the rail shooter route in order to capitalize on Dead Space’s popularity without having to put too much effort into the overall game? It seems we’ll have to wait until later this year to see.
